Allen v. Farrow

Plot

The documentary series centers on the sexual abuse accusation against Woody Allen made by his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, who was seven years old at the time of the alleged incident. It traces the custody dispute between Allen and his former partner Mia Farrow, his subsequent marriage to her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, who is 35 years younger, and the events that followed over the years. Featured in the series are Mia and Dylan Farrow, along with Ronan Farrow, Allen and Mia’s biological son, and actress Carly Simon, as well as family friends, experts, prosecutors, and investigators.

A videotaped account by Dylan of the alleged assault, recorded shortly after she said it happened and never before shown publicly, is included; the tape is disputed, with one side viewing it as proof of the allegation and the other arguing it shows she was coached. The filmmakers challenge a report from the Yale Child Sexual Abuse Clinic at Yale-New Haven Hospital, which concluded Dylan was not credible after interviewing her. The documentary also contains home videos shot by Mia Farrow and secret recordings of phone calls between her and Allen.

Witnesses describe Allen as fixated on Dylan, trailing her constantly and acting inappropriately, such as having her suck his thumb; a clinical psychologist deemed this behavior overly intense but not sexual. The film further suggests that Allen groomed Soon-Yi over many years and that his sexual interest in her may have started while she was still in high school. Ronan Farrow claims in the documentary that Allen offered to pay his college tuition, but only if he disowned his mother and sister, an offer he refused.

The series analyzes Allen’s films in the context of the allegations and provides extensive background on his pattern of focusing on young women in both his movies and personal life. An interview with actress and model Christina Engelhardt is included, in which she says she had a romantic relationship with Allen at age 17 and believes she inspired Mariel Hemingway’s 17-year-old character in Manhattan. Allen declined interview requests, but the series uses clips from the audiobook of his 2020 memoir, Apropos of Nothing.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 84% based on 56 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's critical consensus calls it a compelling if one-sided indictment of society's complicity in upholding powerful people over seeking justice. On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews. Dorothy Rabinowitz in The Wall Street Journal described it as an extraordinarily detailed investigative work.

Variety's review said that Dylan speaking out represents for her a closing of this chapter and a chance to start anew. Brian Lowry of CNN wrote that despite the painstaking research, viewers might come away not entirely sure what they know as opposed to what they believe, but that even a generous reading of Allen's behavior casts him in a troubling light. Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com gave the docuseries three and a half out of four stars and urged both those who believe and don't believe the Farrows' side to watch it.

Eric Deggans of NPR wrote that the series holds Allen's past behavior up to modern sensibilities in a way that makes him look terrible, but that questions will remain about what may be left out. Hadley Freeman in The Guardian commented that the series sets itself up as an investigation but much more resembles PR, as biased and partial as a political candidate's advert vilifying an opponent in election season, and noted that Ziering and Dick had been criticized for putting advocacy ahead of accuracy in their 2015 documentary about campus rape, Hunting Ground, which used discredited data.

Did You Know?

• Producer Amy Herdy disputed Allen's claim about the timing of the filmmakers' contact with him, saying she reached out to his publicist Leslee Dart in June 2018 and received no reply.
• The series was referred to as the 'Eliza Project' during production to maintain secrecy.
• The first episode garnered just over 1 million viewers, the most for a multi-episode HBO documentary series since The Case Against Adnan Syed in 2019.